Classes, Races And Alignments In Slash'EM

Introduction

This spoiler on classes, races and alignments in Slash'EM was written
by Eva Myers, with helpful contributions from Dylan O'Donnell,
K. Bailey, Jukka Kuusisto, Stephen Churchill,
Robert R. Schneck, David Cochran and Kevin Wayne. If you have any
comments, additions or
corrections, please feel free to email me. Information on why the
permissible class/race/alignment combinations are what they are would
be particularly welcome.

Table of Class/Race/Alignment Combinations

This table shows the permissible combinations of class, race and
alignment (L means Lawful, N means Neutral and C means Chaotic).
Valkyries are always female and Yeomen are always male, but all other
classes can be of either gender.

Dop

Dro

Dwa

Elf

Gno

Hob

Hum

Lyc

Orc

Vam

Arc

N

L

LN

N

LN

LN

Bar

NC

C

N

NC

C

C

C

Cav

N

L

N

LN

Fla

NC

C

LN

N

LN

LNC

C

Hea

N

N

N

N

N

Ice

NC

C

LN

N

LN

LNC

C

C

Kni

L

Mon

NC

LN

LNC

Nec

C

C

C

C

C

Pri

NC

C

LN

LN

LNC

Ran

NC

C

N

N

N

NC

C

C

Rog

C

C

C

C

C

Sam

L

Tou

N

N

N

Und

NC

C

LN

N

LN

LNC

C

C

Val

N

L

LN

Wiz

NC

C

N

N

N

NC

C

C

Yeo

L

L

L

Why are these the only permissible combinations? To begin with, each
class and race has an allowed range of alignments, and only
combinations with compatible alignments are allowed (e.g.,
there are no dwarven barbarians because dwarves are lawful and
barbarians are not).

Now I'll discuss the allowed alignment ranges, but first a note on the
meanings of ``lawful'' and ``chaotic''. In AD&D, lawful characters
believe in the value of order and social structure, chaotic characters
are strong individualists who distrust authority and dislike being
ordered around, and it is possible to be chaotic good or lawful evil.
In Nethack and Slash'EM, there are only three alignments (lawful,
neutral and chaotic) and to some extent lawful is equated with good
and chaotic with evil.

Lycanthropes, orcs, vampires and drow (dark elves) are always chaotic
because they are actively evil. (Light) elves are always good and
therefore cannot be chaotic. Hobbits are non-chaotic because they
don't like adventure and change. Doppelgangers cannot be lawful
because taking the form of another person would usually be done with
intent to deceive.

Apparently, dwarves are lawful and gnomes neutral because that's the
way their societies are. [References to books showing dwarven and
gnomish societies would be useful here.]

Knights, Samurai and Yeomen can only be lawful because they follow a
strong code of honour and/or fill a clear role in a social hierarchy.

Rogues and Necromancers are evil and therefore chaotic.

Monks and Priests can be of any alignment because they can be
followers of any deity, Flame and Ice Mages because their magic can be
used for either good or evil, and Undead Slayers because they can
either be part of an organised army or a lone warrior against the
undead hordes.

Barbarians and Rangers are lone wanderer types, and therefore are
neutral or chaotic but not lawful. Wizards are also non-lawful,
because they are more dedicated to study of the magic arts than to law
or ethics, and because magic was historically regarded as the "black
arts" and messing with powers that ought not to be messed with, and
therefore lawfuls would stay away from it.

Archaeologists are non-chaotic because research is a collaborative
activity, Cavemen are non-chaotic because of their opposition to
Tiamat (the Chromatic Dragon, their quest nemesis, who personifies the
water of Chaos), and Valkyries are non-chaotic because they
are doing the will of Odin in choosing fallen warriors for Valhalla
and no chaotic character would ever serve the will of anyone else.

Healers can only be neutral because they take an oath to heal everyone
whether good or evil. Tourists can only be neutral because they've
left their society to go travel around, so they're not lawful, but
they're not actively evil either, and unlike Barbarians and Rangers,
they'll probably go back home someday, so they're not really chaotic.

Some class/race combinations are banned for reasons other than
alignment:

Gnomes and Hobbits are not strong enough to be Barbarians.
(Although this was posted on r.g.r.n as an
explanation for the lack
of Elven and Gnomish Barbarians in vanilla Nethack, it doesn't quite work
for Slash'EM, because Elves and Drow are just as weak, and they can
be Barbarians. Perhaps Hobbits are too fond of home comforts to
live as Barbarians or Cavemen.)

Elves don't like living underground or in caves, preferring living
in forests, and therefore can't be Cavemen. (Or maybe the lack of
Elven Cavemen is because Elves did not evolve like humans.)

Vampires can't be Flame Mages because they are cold-blooded and it
would be strange for them to have a magical command of fire. Also,
sunlight kills them, and the sun is a big ball of fire.

Knights and Samurai come directly from human history and hence can
only be human.

Lycanthropes, Orcs and Vampires are more into random slaughter than
dedicating themselves to religion and so can't be Monks or Priests.
Similarly, Dwarves cannot be Monks or Priests because they lack the
mental discipline required (they have a tendency to fly into rages
and drink a lot).

Gnomes cannot be Monks or Priests because they are too practical
and selfish to suffer for some abstract ideal with no guaranteed
reward.

Elves and Drow cannot be Monks because they prefer to fight with
bows and arrows rather than martial arts.

Vampires can't be Rangers because they couldn't survive being
outdoors all the time in daylight.

Apparently, Drow cannot be Rogues because Droven societies are
very closely knit and it would be impossible for a Drow to rebel to
the extent required to be a Rogue.

Elves and Gnomes can't be Tourists because they prefer to keep
themselves to themselves in their own communities rather than
travelling around visiting human societies.

Vampires obviously can't be Undead Slayers. Perhaps the lack of
Dwarven Undead Slayers is because dwarves and vampires share an
affinity for sunless caves, or because vampires prefer to drain blood
from young maidens and the dwarf sexes are indistinguishable in
appearance.

Elves, Gnomes and Hobbits are all too weak to be Valkyries. (This
is a consistent explanation - all races which a Valkyrie can be can
reach strength 18/** - but maybe the real reason has something to do
with them deriving from incompatible mythology?)

Dwarves cannot be Yeomen because they do not ride into battle.

Maximum Stats For The Different Races

Str

Dex

Con

Int

Wis

Cha

Dop

18/**

20

20

20

20

15

Dro

18

18

16

20

20

18

Dwa

18/**

20

20

16

16

16

Elf

18

18

16

20

20

18

Gno

18/50

18

18

19

18

18

Hob

18

18

20

16

18

20

Hum

18/**

18

18

18

18

18

Lyc

19

20

19

15

15

15

Orc

18/50

18

18

16

16

16

Vam

19

20

20

18

18

20

Difficulty Comparison Of Slash'EM Races

See J. Ali Harlow's spoiler on class-
and race-dependent abilities for lists of the intrinsics and
techniques associated with each race. The notes below are a rough
guide to the relative difficulty of the races in Slash'EM 7E6F3.
However, your mileage may vary, and character class is more important
than race in determining how easy a character is.